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The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened?

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The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened? SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts &The Humanities Death Rite (Peer in New-Reviewed, Republic Open Nepal Access,: Should Indexed It Be Shortened?in NepJOL) 91 SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities [PeerPublished-Reviewed, by Central Open Department Access, Indexed of English, in NepJOL] Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur,Central Kathmandu, Department of Nepal English Print ISSN:ISSN : 2773xxxx-7829;xxxx; e-ISSN: 2773xxxx-7837xxxx Tribhuvan University Volume 1, August 2019, pp. 91-104 Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal Volume 1, August 2019, pp. 91-104 DOI: https://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxxxxxx www.cdetu.edu.np/ejournal/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/sjah.v1i0.34451 The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened? Shiva Ram Rijal, PhD Central Department of English Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal Abstract I introduce an on-going debate on whether and how should rituals be tamed in the contemporary Hindu society of Nepal. In this paper, I point out intellectuals who espouse secular thoughts hesitate to talk about rituals in public. On the other hand, there are also many who believe these rituals as their forte. Out of this trajectory of thoughts, I develop an argument that there is a lack of force that could promote interpretative understanding of rituals in Nepal. Based on a line of thoughts propounded by Roy A. Rappaport, Catherine Bell, and Hannah Arendt, I maintain that rituals need to be taken as part and parcel of ritual-making zeal of humankind. With a brief introduction about the historicity of ritualization in Nepal, I highlight the adoptable characteristics of rituals in the Kathmandu Valley and the role the people of the valley have started to point out a possibility of bringing reformation in death rituals. Keywords: Vedic, ritualisation, sanskritisation, communitas, redressive mechanism, intervention Introduction Nepal has gone through challenging times jammed with issues of the past, present and future. The age-old monarchical system came to an end in 2008. The implementation of new constitution and establishment of federal restructuration of the state have remained the strongest driving political forces. The ongoing political transformation has also triggered some debates about rituals in practice since ancient times. Rituals that the Hindu societies live by have become the subjects of concern for political parties from extreme left to the ultra-right wing in recent years. Similarly, SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities Volume 1, August 2019 The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened? 92 positive changes taking place in rituals have also drawn media attention. For example, when women from Tanahu district, the western part of Nepal, carried out funeral procession of a woman who died in a local old age home, it drew the attention of the press. National dailies took the funeral procession as the metaphor of Nepal that is changing in a positive way (Kantipur, 09 Nov. 2014). Not only death rites but other animal sacrifice rites are also under social scrutiny in the federal system. The famous Gadhimai festival that is held in every five years in Gadhimai temple of Bara District, southern part of Nepal, drew the attention of animal rights activists worldwide in November 2019. Despite a series of protests, the animal sacrifice took place in a huge scale. Bizarre pictures of the sacrifice – the blood soaked ground and animals lying with severed trunks – were posted on social media and came out in media reporting of the event. In the meantime, the Nepal government has officially announced plans to support certain economic funds to promote widow marriage and also inter-caste marriage, thereby, reversing at least on a limited scale the ritual practices that have roots in the caste-discriminatory past. However, news about sufferings and tragic ends of inter-caste married couples fill the media coverage such as TV screens in Nepal. Conflicting views dominate the discourse on rituals in Nepal. On the one hand, leaders espousing the left and democratic political views, as if it were for the first time, have spoken openly about the exigency of making death mourning rituals shorter and smarter. On the other hand, conservative political parties are trying their best to reinstate them qua Nepal as a Hindu state. The idea is, they believe, as the rituals of the Hindus as prescribed in the Vedas are the most sacred things beyond the grasp of mortals, and they can be saved only by attaching them to the hegemony of Hinduism as a dominant view as well as a system of discipline. The guru of many Nepali communist leaders, Mohan Bikram Singh, who lived underground for several decades, believes that reformative movements within religion seen as “common experience in many religious countries including India” are not going to happen soon in Nepal (34). But as a staunch communist, he repeats the communist jingle that the day will come when “progressive forces will take over the orthodoxy” (37). Former Education Minister Modanath Prashreet who had been a politburo member of the former Nepal Communist Party, a famous poet and now an opponent of proselytization in Nepal argues that it is high time to make the thirteen- day-long death rituals practiced among the Nepali Hindus shorter and simpler (45) in order to address the aspirations of people. Narahari Acharya, a former minister and the member of the Central Committee of the Nepali Congress and a literary critic, points out that instead of the modern state getting involved into the act of reforming rituals, it is people within the communities who should take up such a cudgel (46). He SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities Volume 1, August 2019 The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened? 93 further proposes that the thirteen-day-long death ritual should be shortened to five days (51). Khagendra Sangraula, the leading Marxist writer, points out the urgent need of debunking certain episode from the Hindu death rituals, mainly the recitation of Garud Purana (57). Garud Purana tells harrowing stories that happen to the departed soul in the inferno. This book is seen as the most reactionary interpretation and rituals by harping on the tenets of the Hindu perception of hell, heaven, and salvation. Ghanashyam Sharma Paudyal, a leftist academic, blames the Brahmins for creating mess in the society by capturing gods in their hold. He throws a rhetorical card that since Brahmins themselves “do not live or act out the prescribed ritualistic life, then why should common people practise rituals in the same form as they suggest?” (79). Another leftist and Sanskrit scholar Bishnu Dahal opines that the Hindu rituals associated with life force rather than the ones associated with death should be promoted (123). An orthodox Sanskrit scholar Ram Chandra Gautam points out that rituals cannot be treated freely as he claims: “Even the principles and rituals propounded by the Puranas are not given authenticity until they are justified on the principles prescribed in the Vedic texts” (132). Foreign Minister and member of the Politburo of Nepal Communist Party Pradip Gyanwali critiques his leftist friends for holding a very limited understanding about the paramparik arts and cultures of the country. He says that traditional plays, festivals, and rituals are much more than mere mediums for social and political transformations (146). Aahuti, himself a Dalit and a staunch leftist ideologue and fiction writer, critiques the domination of rituals in the Nepali Hindu society on the ground of human right as he argues: “It is the parents’ rights, not that of any priest, to name the children. And it is the very individual who after reaching a mature age should have right to choose his or her name” (171). As a former Maoist leader, Aahuti points out that people in power have deliberately promoted rituals favourable for them. In this process, they have made other people’s life miserable. He argues that the very centre of power must realise this guilt (159). The above survey reveals a point that scholars and ideologues agree that rituals associated with death rites have become burden to the Hindus in Nepal though Nepal as a modern nation state hesitates to intervene into the domain of rituals of the Hindus. Political ideologues and intellectuals have sympathy for the victims of rituals. But, they also do not have any strategy to enter the domain of rituals and turn the tide of suffering. On the contrary, caste-discrimination is still rampant, and rituals have remained the least intervened areas. Now the questions come: Who will bell the cat? Can rituals be made liberal simply by talking about them or simply by critiquing Brahmins? How are communities to decide about reforming rituals? Who are going to motivate or guide them? SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities Volume 1, August 2019 The Death Rite in New Republic Nepal: Should It Be Shortened? 94 Of Core Values and Beyond Addressing the questions raised above requires the one to realise the limitation of existing understanding about rituals. Victor Turner points out that the rituals are part of redressive mechanism that people perform to address personal and social crises in their life: “Redressive action is often ritualised, and may be undertaken in the name of law or religion” (8). Ritual performances become synonymous with key moments in life of the members of the community. Such occasions bring persons and symbols crucial to know who they are, what faiths they need to embody and so on: “Rituals bring core cultural values, ideology, knowledge and dramatic style to bear on real social relationships, problems and difficulties, often at key moments of transition or intensification” (Schieffelin18). Such ritual occasions also create moments when the intangible knowledge and wisdom crucial to run life and community as well as the very rituals are handed over to the new generation.
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